Lesson Plan for Teaching Particle Physics/Preparing for Soudan Underground Lab
Field Trip
Target: H.S. Physics
History:
In 1931 theorist Wolfgang Pauli noticed that the experiments he had been
performing on beta decay (neutron into an electron and proton) were losing energy. To
keep with known physics Pauli theorized that there was an unseen neutral particle, which
was able to escape without detection. In 1933 Enrico Fermi took equations and
experimental data from radioactive decays and devised a comprehensive theory that
included Pauli’s particle, which Fermi latter called neutrino or “little neutral one.” When
Fermi included the particle into the theory, it then explained many experimentally
observed results. In 1956 Clyde Cowan and Fred Reines discovered a particle that fit the
expected characteristics of the neutrino, this neutrino is associated with a formation of an
electron. 1962 scientists find that the neutrino that is created with a muon does not act in
the same way as a neutrino that is created in juncture with an electron. Thus a new
neutrino was discovered.
Materials:
The four videos that were sent in the “video” CD (or folder).
Textbook (note: your textbooks may be out dated. If so look to text revisions on
the last page.)
Some way to play the videos on the CD (requires Windows Media Player)
An understanding of the videos is recommended for you to explain the videos to
your students
Objectives/Outcomes
The objective of this lesson is: 1) to give your students a basic understanding of
particle physics 2) to educate them on what is happening in the field today and what
implications it will have on there lives in the future and 3) to get students to appreciate
the time and effort that is needed to find these particles. This lesson can also be a great
way to show your students the different types of careers in physics.
Day One
 Show your students a picture of a universe. A good spiral universe can be found at
http://www.spaceref.com/tools/vi.html?id=2&cat=galaxies&imgs=smallimage.
 Ask them, "How many stars do you think would be in this galaxy?"
 Looking for trillions
 Continue asking them about our sun and how big it is to the rest of the solar
system.
 The sun contains 99.89% of the solar systems mass.
 The sun has a mass of 1.989x1030 kg. The mass of the sun is almost the mass of
the solar system.
 Then one galaxy has an observed mass of 1.989x1042 kg.
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But this is only between 1 and 5 % of the mass that is needed to allow the galaxy
to move in the fashion that it does.
Therefore the amount of mass that physics are looking for is 1.96911x1044 Kg in
each galaxy.
The purpose of this information is to give an idea of the large quantities involved.
Day Two
Today we are going to talk about elementary particles (write “elementary particles” on
the board).
What are elementary particles? You may have gone over this in a previous class, but it
is still good review.
Encourage the students to give the desired response, “Something that is made up of
nothing else, and are the building blocks of all matter.”
Ok what are some of the elementary particles that are out there?
You should get quarks, and electrons. It is very doubtful you’ll get a student that knows
what leptons are?
Explain leptons; what an Electron, Muon, and Tau particles are.
Neutrinos are the sister particle to each of these and are also found in the lepton family,
and every particle has its antimatter twin!
Make a table on the board that looks like this
There are many different ways in which a
neutrino is created, solar, cosmic, Big Bang.
Show Beta decay and muon decay videos. Take
time to describe what is happening in each video.
If your book has information regarding neutrinos
have the students turn there. If the book says that the
neutrino has no mass, explain that MINOS and two other
experiments have shown
this to be incorrect, they do have tiny masses.
Take this time to explain about Wolfgang Pauli and how
he came to hypothesize neutrinos must exist or Beta decay
violates the conservation of energy and momentum laws.
Ask the students; “How could this be?”, “How could
something that has mass be undetectable?”
It would have to have no charge, very little spin, and be VERY small indeed
Ask then; “What do you think it would take to see this thing?”
Encourage them to say something along the lines of “a bunch of things” then go further in
depth.
When a muon neutrino “hits” an atom’s nucleus it creates a muon, which is like a big
fat electron, about 200 times the mass of an electron with a negative charge. As the
muon passes through the detector it causes electron excitation in the iron atoms in the
detector. As the electrons return to the ground state they release energy as a photon of
light, which is channeled to electronics and the computer by way of the scintillator strips.
Day Three
 Perform a quick review about what happened the day before remind them that they
ended with a lack of mass in the universe.
 Show fourth clip of oscillation
 Explain that scientists cannot measure the mass of neutrinos directly but they need to
detect if it can change flavors over time.
 Tell them how a neutrino is expected to change from a muon to a tau neutrino in 2.5
millisecond trip from Fermilab to the Far Detector at Soudan. If this happens they
must have mass!
 Review superposition of waves of the same frequency, same amplitude, both
constructive and destructive interference.
 Review DeBroglie matter, or matter probability waves.
 Ask what happens when two waves of different frequency mix. Look for sometimes
constructive, sometimes destructive interference, but never zero amplitude. This is a
good analogy to what must happen in neutrino oscillation. A neutrino of
indeterminate mass, or two masses mixed each having a unique probability wave, will
oscillate. This instant a muon neutrino (constructive) a moment later an electron
neutrino (destructive) and so on.
 Remaining time: go to computer lab and have students perform research on the sites
listed in this lesson plan.
 If you are not going on the field trip I encourage you to send your students to the
Soudan mine page and look at some of the pictures that they have down there.
 If you are going to the mine I still encourage them to look at the site for it will give
them a better what is happening when they are down there.
Student Modifications:
You know your students; if the class is more geared to hands on learning then
please make full use out of the videos that have been provided. You may choose to use
one day or all days of this lesson plan. If the class learns better from you just putting the
material on the board then emphasize the mechanics behind the collisions and imitations.
A mixture of both of these techniques should help to better convey the desired message.
Again I say you know your class, please use what is best for your students.
Resources:
Some of the sites that I used are as follows:
http://www.soudan.umn.edu (Soudan Lab Website)
http://www-numi.fnal.gov/
http://www.ps.uci.edu/~superk/neutrino.html
http://particleadventure.org/
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/HFrame.html
Teacher Notes
I encourage you to look at these web sites because something is changing every
day in the neutrino world. Also you may find information that would be more useful for
your class then what has been provided to you.
Application to Life
Everyday physics is going deeper and deeper into finding more about how
observed things work; almost every day another discovery is made that will impact your
lives. Because your students are the next generation they will see things that scientists
can’t even fathom. The next generation will build off of our information, which can bring
a change to the world that we live in and maybe even others.